Answering questions you might have.

[Jason R]

I had an email exchange with the lunchbox manufacturer last night. According to him, AU still has not done what it needs to do to get moving with the lunchboxes. In fact, he says that the printed metal (not shaped into lunchboxes yet) will go into storage tomorrow if Ross does not at least call him.

To quote his email to me "The factory will warehouse the printed tin on Wednesday if they don’t hear from me."

Posting this excerpt is not an attempt to make Ross look bad. If I wanted to do that, I'd post the whole email. It is irresponsible to act like you have time to spare when people have been waiting so long, and the only difference between your product and the competition's is the item that you are delaying!

[pgh kenny]

To quote his email to me "The factory will warehouse the printed tin on Wednesday if they don’t hear from me."

I'm trying real hard to not post any more messages, but I can't resist telling you Jason that some of your posts remind me of the leaked memos at http://www.thesmokinggun.com/

[Jason R]

I'm not trying to make it seem that way. My goal is to tell you what I know and to base it on what have heard from others involved with this project. When AU contradicts what I am saying, and I can easily disprove it, it is my obligation to do so.

For example, you might wonder why I have not sent an email update to the buyers of the disc in months, and why AU has had to do it themselves (when they did send updates). It is because I honestly just don't know what they are doing anymore and it would be wrong of me to put my name on something that I do not necessarily believe to be true.

Let me add again, because Ross pointed this out to me in an email yesterday, Yes, I did introduce Ventura to the equation. I spoke with them, and Ross wanted their phone number from me. Not wanting to look like I was talking with a new potential client behind his back, I let him call them, but let him know that Ventura was not expecting a call from him about MSCL. My talks with Ventura mostly involved future projects that I was going to do with them instead of AU, and perhaps MSCL could have been a part of that.

So, while I gave him a phone number, I don't really understand how he would feel that I am responsible for him doing what he did. It is like giving a teenager a car. I am responsible for giving him the car, and perhaps I should not have given him the car, as he is a reckless driver. However, I am not the one who drove the car off the cliff.

[GordLacey]

I am responsible for giving him the car, and perhaps I should not have given him the car, as he is a reckless driver. However, I am not the one who drove the car off the cliff.

I think it's more like a bus going off the cliff, and the MSCL DVD set and everyone else are passengers.

Big boom, fiery deaths for all.

Gord

[ClarenceWorley]

It is because, I honestly just don't know what they are doing anymore...

This is all a bad dream, right?

[Jason R]

More like an alternate bizarro universe, or should I say "another universe" where earthman logic doesn't exist in the same way. I think I finally understand why they have that name.

Speaking of Murphy's Law (the subject of the previous post), I am reminded of the Murphy's Law corollary:

"There is no such thing as idiot-proof. The universe will always create a better idiot."

I just can't figure out who the bigger idiot is. AU for f***ing everything up so royally and completely, or me for entrusting a project to them that is now so obviously outside of their competence. What is their competence, even? I'm having a hard time thinking of one thing that they did not screw up.

It is because, I honestly just don't know what they are doing anymore...

This is all a bad dream, right?

[siandam]

[quote="Jason Rosenfeld"]I'm having a hard time thinking of one thing that they did not screw up.

They seem to spell things correctly.

[Jason R]

Thanks for making me laugh.

[smackey]

I just can't figure out who the bigger idiot is. AU for f***ing everything up so royally and completely, or me for entrusting a project to them that is now so obviously outside of their competence.

Jason, I think you've touched on the heart of what is causing much of the backlash now. Everyone on this message board has such a passion for this show/project--so much so that we've let it cloud our vision and decisions at times. For you, I'm assuming you thought AU was the only hope for this project, and since you wanted it to see the light of day so much, you ran with it. For us, AU says "OK, time to pay up front"; we all go "Hmm... Is that such a great idea?" then ultimately cave because we all really want a permanent, official record of this show we love, and figure this is our only chance. I mean, come on: People were reluctant to dispute an overcharge because they were afraid their order was going to be canceled!! When you step back and look at it, it's a little scary that we're so dedicated to this project that we were willing to endure things that reasonable people simply wouldn't put up with. Now that the delays have tempered the lingering euphoria over the box set, people are realizing where they really stand. And boy are they pissed.

"The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still"
--Alexander Pope

[Jason R]

I agree, and I believe that it is a bit of a "last straw" backlash. I also believe that this is the tip of the iceberg.

I cannot believe the bullshit that customers put up with, that BMG put up with, that GWhizOnline (the lunchbox manufacturers) put up with. Given that much leeway from everybody, any 1/10th decent company would have taken this project and ran with it and been hugely successful.

I guess that as each new problem cropped up, and it seemed like this happened daily, I would ask myself "ok, nobody fucks things up this badly, I'm sure that things will improve."

I have to give Ross Rojek a lot of credit. If there was something that could be fucked up, his company managed to do it.

I, for one, cannot contain my rage any longer.

Doublecharges not bad enough for you? We'll triple charge people!

Then we won't respond to their emails!

Two months later, we'll still have their money!

We'll charge people up front and make vendors have to pull teeth just to get paid!

Then when we pay them, we will bounce the checks!

While everybody else is waiting for refunds or to get paid, we will be earning interest on the money in CDs!

It will be October and the lunchbox manufactuer will still be owed $8,600!

We won't just promise and miss one deadline! We'll promise 3 and miss them all!

Instead of using a good company to burn the bonus disc, we'll have Justin, our web master, do it, so we can save a few bucks!

Just want to publicly thank you, Ross Rojek, for taking a perfectly good business model, setting it on fire, stomping it into the ground, and taking a piss on it.

I hope that everyone here knows where I stand in regards to my view of Another Universe.

[andrewgd]

I, for one, cannot contain my rage any longer.

Yay! I've been waiting for this!

[smackey]

Instead of using a good company to burn the bonus disc, we'll have Justin, our web master, do it, so we can save a few bucks!

Is this true? I thought I read a post yesterday that said Justin was simply setting up the disc's menus, etc. You mean they're manually burning them on an iMac or something? That would be the final straw. We could be waiting until this time next year!

[fnordboy]

While everybody else is waiting for refunds or to get paid, we will be earning interest on the money in CDs!

Ok this really pisses me off! Not only do these bastards steal 230 bucks from me they earn on it, not even count what they are earning on the 126 i spent originally on it).

Instead of using a good company to burn the bonus disc, we'll have Justin, our web master, do it, so we can save a few bucks!

This should be good, can't wait to see how bad this comes out. We see how good he takes care of the website. The two product pages for the MSCL set on the site last i checked (last night) had conflicting information. And i wont even get into how bad some of the graphics look...

[andrewgd]

Instead of using a good company to burn the bonus disc, we'll have Justin, our web master, do it, so we can save a few bucks!

So we're all waiting all this extra time for a shitty disc burned by an amatuer, with "My So-Called Life Bonus" scribbled across the top in marker?

I can't imagine this is worth the $30+ people are spending on it.

[Jason R]

Justin is working on the design and then they are supposedly being sent out to a local company for pressing. Incidentally, I had obtained a reasonable quote from AIX, the same company that created the discs from BMG. It might not have been a bargain basement price, but they would have had it well done, quickly and without errors.

Instead of using a good company to burn the bonus disc, we'll have Justin, our web master, do it, so we can save a few bucks!

So we're all waiting all this extra time for a shitty disc burned by an amatuer, with "My So-Called Life Bonus" scribbled across the top in marker?

I can't imagine this is worth the $30+ people are spending on it.